Collaborations for Sustainable

Water Use

Curt Brown, Director

Research and Development

Mr. and Mrs. Brown

Altus Air Field, Altus, OK

1944

Mr. and Mrs. Hardy

Guthrie, OK

1945

Topics

• WaterSMART Program

– Emphasis on the Basin Studies Program

• Advanced Water Treatment activities

• Thanks to our Oklahoma-Texas Area Office!

WaterSMART Program

Improve water conservation and

sustainability.

http://www.usbr.gov/WaterSMART

WaterSMART Water and Energy

Efficiency Grants • Available to States, Indian tribes, irrigation

and water or power districts

• 2011: 58 projects for a total of $25 million.

• 2012: 32 projects for a total of $11 million.

2013 applications are due

on January 17, 2013.

In the past three years, Reclamation has

allocated $63 million to 130 projects, with

projected annual savings of about 600,000

acre-feet per year --- enough to meet Tulsa’s

needs for about 5 years!

Examples of WaterSMART Grants

• Three Sisters Irrigation District (Oregon)

– Replace open canal with pipe

– 750 acre-feet/year saved annually

• Fort Shaw Irrigation District (Montana)

– Replace open ditches with PVC pipe

– 4,158 acre-feet /year saved annually

• Saved water marketed by Districts for instream flow

Reclamation Basin Studies Program

• http://www.usbr.gov/WaterSMART/bsp/

Basin Studies

• Purpose

– evaluate the ability to meet future water demands within a

river basin and identify sustainable strategies.

– Special focus on potential impacts of climate change.

• Eligible Applicants

– States, tribes, water districts, cities, and other local

governmental entities with water delivery or management

authority located in the 17 Western States

West-Wide Climate Risk

Assessments

• Reconnaissance-level water supply and demand analyses in

eight Reclamation river basins

• Projections of climate change impacts to water supply and

demand

• Baseline for more in-depth analyses performed through Basin

Studies

• http://gdo-dcp.ucllnl.org/downscaled_cmip3_projections/dcpInterface.html

Temperature increase by 2100 (30-year mean)

Colorado River

Basin Study

Reclamation in

partnership with

the seven basin states.

http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/programs/crbstudy.html

150+ options for sustainability of

water use

Reduce demand, e.g.

• Reduce Demand Municipal/Industrial Water

Conservation

• Landscape Design Regulations

Water management, e.g.

• Aquifer storage and recovery

• Water banking and transfer

Increase supply, e.g.

• Salton Sea Restoration and Drainwater Reuse

• Weather modification to increase snowpack

• Coal Bed Methane Produced Water

Current Basin Studies

2009

• Colorado River Basin Study

• St. Mary and Milk River Basins Study

• Yakima River Basin Study

2010

• Henry's Fork of the Snake River Basin Study

• Niobrara River Basin Study

• Santa Ana River Watershed Basin Study

• Southeast California Regional Basin Study

• Truckee River Basin Study

2011

• Hood River Basin Study

• Klamath River Basin Study

• Lower Rio Grande Basin Study

• Santa Fe Basin Study

2012

• Los Angeles Basin Study

• Pecos River Basin Study

• Republican River Basin Study

• Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers Basin Study

• Upper Washita River Basin Study

Upper Washita Basin Study

Oklahoma Water

Resources Board, and

the Foss and Fort Cobb

Reservoir Master

Conservancy Districts.

Bureau of Reclamation,

Oklahoma-Texas Area

Office

Upper Washita Basin Study

• quantify surface and groundwater resources

• project of how climate change may impact future

water needs;

• determine the amount of groundwater available for

future appropriations;

• Develop a surface water allocation model to evaluate

various water management options

• Reclamation expects to initiate the FY 2013 Basin

Studies selection process in late November or early

December 2012.

– Each Reclamation region will send invitation letters to

stakeholders to initiate the selection process

Advanced Water Treatment

• Using advanced technologies to make previously

unusable water sources usable at reasonable cost

• Water Reuse

• Desalination

• http://www.usbr.gov/research/AWT/

Advanced water treatment concepts

• All types of water can represent a supply for certain

purposes.

– Sea water

– Brackish water

– Municipal sewage

– Irrigation return flows

– Industrial discharges

• Using these water sources can

– Diversify the water portfolio

– Reduce costs of water transportation by using local sources

– Provide drought insurance

NAS Desalination: A National

Perspective, 2008

– Water scarcity will

intensify in the

coming decades.

– Desalination will

have a niche in

water

management

portfolios.

– Practical potential

dependent on

economic, social,

environmental and

political factors

NAS Water Reuse: Potential for Expanding

the Nation’s Water Supply, 2012

– De facto reuse

is common:

‘we all live

downstream’

– Many

engineered

and managed

natural

treatments can

be tailored to

meet specific

quality

objectives

Arizona

California

Colorado

Florida

Georgia

New Mexico

North Carolina

Texas

Washington

Virginia

Wyoming

Oklahoma -direct non-potable reuse

Oklahoma Water 2060

• work toward a goal of consuming no more fresh

water in the year 2060 than is consumed statewide in

the year 2012

• achieve this goal through utilizing existing water

supplies more efficiently and expanding the use of

alternatives such as wastewater, brackish water, and

other nonpotable supplies.

AWT Challenges

• Capital costs

• Energy costs

• Environmental impacts of intake and discharge

• Societal understanding of risks and benefits

• Dealing with new types of contaminants

Taking a Solution from Idea to

Commercial Adoption

USAGE

MATURATION

DEVELOPMENT

EXPERIMENTATION

CONCEPT

TIME

Water Plant

SIZ

E

DemonstrationProof/Pilot TestLaboratoryDesk

Reclamation’s Yuma Complex

• Reclamation’s Yuma Desalting Plant is one of the largest

reverse-osmosis desalination plants in the world.

• The Water Quality Improvement Center evaluates

technology for possible use at the Plant

• One of the few bench-scale

to production R&D facilities

Brackish Groundwater National

Desalination Research Facility - NM

• Desalination of brackish

groundwater

• Renewable energy sources for

desalination

• Concentrate management

• Small-scale rural systems

• Treatment of produced waters

Renewable

Energy

Applications

Area

Agricultural Research Area

40-Acre Site

Central Research Building

Evaporation Ponds

Future Large-

Scale Testing

Area

Desalination and Water Purification

Research (DWPR) Program

• looking for innovations that will have a significant

impact on how water treatment, desalting, and water

purification is carried out.

• private industry, universities, water utilities, and

others to address a broad range of needs.

• www.usbr.gov/research/AWT/DWPR

• Pre-proposal announcement yesterday on

Grants.gov

GE’s new Integrated Pump and Energy

Recovery (IPER) system – A new high pressure

pump for seawater desalination reducing

energy demands by at least 10 percent.

City of Scottsdale’s Water Campus - Comparison of

2.4 MGD train with 16-inch elements (left) to existing 1

MGD trains with 8-inch elements.

Variable Source Desalination Pilot

Texas Water

Development

Board,

Brownsville

Public Utilities

Board, and the

Reclamation

Oklahoma-

Texas Area

Office,

Veolia’s ZDD can

increase the

potable

water recovery rate

from the typical

80% to as high as

97%.

Tested at

Reclamation’s

Alamogordo Lab

Now being field

tested in Colorado

Zero Discharge Desalination (ZDD)

Brine Management, Foss Reservoir

Oklahoma

Evaluating options for

dealing with brine

discharge from municipal

water treatment plant.

Drought emergency rapid

assessment of temporary water

supplies

Computer based decision guide

Title XVI: Water Reuse Program

Projects since 1992: • $556 million in Federal cost-share • more than $1.7 billion in non-Federal funding • More than 260,000 acre-feet of water reused annually.

Sonoma County, CA, Water Reuse Program Water Agency Federal Funding: $3,836,750 – provide recycled water to agricultural, environmental,

industrial and landscape uses

City of Round Rock, Texas, Water Recycling and Reuse Project. Federal Funding: $954,083 – a direct, non-potable reuse project to deliver 13,400 acre-

feet of highly treated wastewater effluent annually for irrigation purposes.

www.usbr.gov/WaterSMART/title

Quagga

mussels